A Beacon in Uncertainty: A Manager's Guide Part Three - Streamlining Operations

The previous two posts in this series considered how to design your strategy and offerings to be flexible and adaptive in changing circumstances. This final post looks at streamlining your operations to be nimble and adaptable in any conditions.

Intentional Operations

Our conversations around operations often resemble an arms race between different methods. And all of the methods are effective. So, the purpose here is to present an intentional approach to streamlining your operations. The intentions are shaped by:

-?????? Your strategy;

-?????? Your offerings, designed to enable your users to accelerate their objectives at a reduced rate of cost and complexity;

-?????? Be realistic and ensure that your team does not get burned out trying to meet a burden of expectations it is not equipped to deliver.

The most significant value an operations team provides is its knowledge of what can be done to meet the need. It’s NOT about having the resources and doing all the work, but knowing how to orchestrate both in response.?

Operating Principles we recommend:?

·????? Be realistic.

·????? Show people how everything comes together.

·????? Allow teams to self-manage.

·????? Design services explicitly and well.

·????? Enable your users to meet their objectives.

·????? Be assertive in choosing appropriate metrics.

·????? Automate to simplify and bring consistency.

·????? Use AI to the fullest where appropriate.

?

Here are the details:

?

Be realistic.

Realistic expectations form the basis of effective and efficient operations. When resources are limited, and demands are changing, the most significant value an operations team provides is its knowledge of what can be done to meet the need. It’s NOT about having the resources and doing all the work, but knowing how to orchestrate both in response. Ideally, that will be a cross-functional collaborative effort.

No single perspective can grasp the extent of the systems that run our businesses, so expecting a hierarchical approach to yield the best outcomes is no longer viable.

Show people how everything comes together.

Sometimes, people need a map. Or a visual. Something that shows them how it all comes together. It can be a process flow if that’s what works. Or a layer-cake diagram that shows how everything fits together in service of the objective. But always have a visual that shows how you’re building the engine that gets the job done so people can see where they are on their journey.

?

Allow teams to self-manage.

Our modern workplaces are dynamic. No single perspective can grasp the extent of the systems that run our businesses, so expecting a hierarchical approach to yield the best outcomes is no longer viable. Instead, remove the throttles and the bottlenecks and trust people to do their best work when they are responsible for and accountable to themselves. Everyone wants to make an impact. Employee engagement is your culture’s highest profile face to the market. Show people the north star (and the map, or visual, from above) and let them run.

Design services explicitly and well.

Your programs are services and should be designed explicitly as such using Service Design, a discrete design practice focused on the design of services. Good services are easy to use and run, enable stakeholder outcomes, and are sustainable. Program strategy and offerings (from the first two posts in this series) are incorporated directly into the design of the service so that the service is designed to be adaptable to meet any change in strategy or offerings.

Know how to broker services from available organizational resources, even if these resources aren’t yours

Enable your users to meet their objectives.

As a service provider, you enable internal partners with resources that help them meet their objectives. This is what your operations are geared towards supporting. So, as your user objectives change, your operations should be flexible enough to respond. Know your users’ business and requirements. Maintain communication on all aspects of how you enable them to accelerate their objectives at a reduced rate of cost and complexity. Streamline this by knowing how to broker that service from available organizational resources, even if these resources aren’t yours.

Don’t just accept the metric someone outside your program gives you to meet. Understand the innovation horizon you are working in, and measure your performance using the appropriate metric.?

Be assertive and choose appropriate metrics.

The metrics you use are determined by the innovation horizon in which your work is taking place. We covered the concepts of innovation horizons in part two of this series, Designing Your Offerings. If you are working in an environment where the challenge you help resolve is known, and the ways to fix it are known, then your metric can and should be a hard number like revenue, ROI, or some productivity or efficiency metric. If, however, the resolution has yet to be discovered, then this is a transformation initiative for which no quantitative metrics are known because the resolution has not yet been experienced. This is critical. Many programs are held accountable to quantitative metrics that are inappropriate and impossible to measure in the terms sought. To resolve this, grab a copy of Douglas Hubbard’s How to Measure Anything or Innovation Accounting by Dan Toma and Esther Gons. Don’t just accept the metric someone outside your program gives you to meet. Understand the innovation horizon you are working in, and measure your performance using the appropriate metric.

?

Automate to simplify and bring consistency.

Automation simplifies your services' design, use, and operation, benefiting everyone. If you’re running a program large enough to have its own applications, it will help everyone if you can automate some or all of your most common functions or requirements. Ideally, users should be able to self-serve themselves using a self-service portal. Use the decision tree outlined in part two of this series to design your automation. It will allow users to self-serve based on the experience and value they seek and streamline all your back-end services to align to meet your users’ expectations.

?

Use AI to the fullest, where appropriate.

There’s no value in using AI without a clear reason. Effective AI use will help your users accelerate their outcomes at lower cost and complexity and enable your teams to work smarter and more adaptively in dynamic environments that are susceptible to change. Don’t use AI without having a deep understanding of your domain. You also need to be sure that the AI tool you are using and the data it is working with meet credible thresholds of integrity and quality.

?

Taking Stock

As before in this series of posts, these points don’t prescribe specific tools or methods but present principles that enable you to streamline your services realistically in highly dynamic situations. While we’re in environments where resources are tight and, in most cases, tightening further, we will find space when we stop for a moment to take stock and ask ourselves:

-?????? What is our strategy?

-?????? Who is our customer?

-?????? What expectations do they have that we must meet?

-?????? Who else benefits from our ability to design and provide these services?

-?????? Who else has resources, undertakes activities, and is interested in partnering with us?

-?????? How do we collaborate so everyone wins and makes the most available resources?

?

The highest intention of all is to generate value for everyone—our users, our organization, and ourselves. This is the win-win-win we refer to.

Because where people thrive, organizations prosper.

Let's Chat!

I’d love to hear what you think about these. How do you navigate dynamic challenges in the programs you run?

If you'd like to discuss a scenario you face to see how these can help you, please do send me a note.

I have a live bibliography that supports this. If you’re interested in the recommended reading, please send me a note. I’d happily share the people and resources I find most useful.

The previous two posts in this series looked at:

-?????? Designing your strategy

-?????? Designing your offerings

As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and sharing.

John